Author Guide · Memoir, Fiction & Children’s Books
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On 5 February 2023 Viola Davis won a Grammy for reading her own memoir aloud, and with it became one of the few performers to hold an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. “I wrote this book to honor the 6-year-old Viola,” she said on accepting it. That book, Finding Me (2022), begins in rat-infested apartments in Central Falls, Rhode Island, and follows her to Juilliard and the Oscar stage. It was an Oprah’s Book Club pick. Before it she wrote a picture book in the Corduroy series for her daughter, and after it a courtroom novel with James Patterson. This guide covers her three key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 3 key books · 2018–2026 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Viola Davis has written three books: the picture book Corduroy Takes a Bow (2018), her memoir Finding Me (2022) and the novel Judge Stone (2026), co-written with James Patterson. Start with Finding Me, ideally the audiobook she narrates, which won a Grammy in 2023. It is the book the other two grow out of.
Where to Start with Viola Davis
If you want her own story
→ Finding Me (2022) — from Central Falls to Juilliard and Hollywood.
If you want it in her voice
→ Finding Me (2022) — the Grammy-winning audiobook she reads herself.
If you want fiction
→ Judge Stone (2026) — a courtroom novel set in small-town Alabama.
If you are reading with a young child
→ Corduroy Takes a Bow (2018) — Corduroy goes to the theatre.
3 Viola Davis Books, in Order
Corduroy Takes a Bow
A new story about Corduroy, the teddy bear Don Freeman created in 1968, illustrated by Jody Wheeler. Corduroy goes with his friend Lisa, a young Black girl, to see a play and ends up exploring the theatre. Davis has said the idea came from years of reading the Corduroy books with her daughter Genesis.
Finding Me
Published by HarperOne on 26 April 2022, the memoir runs from a childhood of poverty, hunger, violence at home and bullying in Central Falls, Rhode Island, through Rhode Island College and Juilliard to a career in theatre and film, and the role of Annalise Keating in How to Get Away with Murder. Davis writes about race, sexual abuse and Hollywood’s beauty standards. Oprah Winfrey chose it for her book club and interviewed Davis for a Netflix special, and the audiobook, read by Davis, won the 2023 Grammy for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording.
Davis narrates her own audiobook, which won a Grammy, and the printed book carries that same unfiltered directness. She writes about childhood poverty and hunger so severe she stole food, about sexual abuse she experienced as a child, about the specific moment she understood that the industry wanted her to shrink her Blackness and her body to be palatable — and the slower, harder work of refusing. The Hollywood chapters are honest about the cost of the roles she took and the ones she turned down. What makes this more than a celebrity memoir is the refusal to smooth anything over for the reader’s comfort — she is as unsparing about her own choices, including moments of shame and complicity, as she is about what was done to her. It’s a study in the distance between how a person is public and who they actually are, which is precisely the kind of book I’m always looking for.
— LisanneJudge Stone
Her first novel for adults, written with James Patterson and published by Little, Brown in March 2026. In Union Springs, a small town in Alabama, circuit judge Mary Stone hears the case of a doctor charged under the state’s strict abortion law after an operation on a 13-year-old girl, and has to weigh the law, her community and her own re-election.
In What Order to Read Viola Davis
The three books have nothing to do with each other as stories, so read by what you want: the memoir for her life, the novel for fiction, the picture book with a child. Publication order does show a range, from a book written for her daughter to a full account of her own childhood to a legal drama aimed at a mass audience.
For most readers Finding Me is the one that matters. Consider the audiobook alongside the print: Davis reads it herself, and that recording is what won her the Grammy.
A reading path
1. Finding Me (2022)
2. Judge Stone (2026)
3. Corduroy Takes a Bow (2018)
The years · 1965–2026
Quick facts about Viola Davis
- Known for
- Davis is known as one of the most decorated actors of her generation, with an Oscar, an Emmy, two Tonys and a Grammy, the last for her own memoir.
- 1965
- Born in St. Matthews, South Carolina
- 2001
- First Tony, for King Hedley II
- 2022
- Finding Me
- 2026
- Judge Stone
- Born
- 11 August 1965, St. Matthews, South Carolina; raised in Central Falls, Rhode Island
- Education
- Rhode Island College, then the Juilliard School
- Stage
- Tony Awards for King Hedley II (2001) and Fences (2010)
- Screen
- Emmy for How to Get Away with Murder (2015); Oscar for Fences (2017)
- Grammy
- 2023, for the audiobook of Finding Me, completing her EGOT
- Married
- The actor and producer Julius Tennon, in 2003
The red mark is 2022: Finding Me, her memoir and the book that won her a Grammy.
How Viola Davis Writes: Starting from the Child
Finding Me is built around one idea she has repeated in interviews: that she spent years hiding where she came from. The book starts with the six-year-old in Central Falls, Rhode Island — the rats, the hunger, the bullying, the violence at home — and gives that childhood as much room as the awards that came later. On accepting the Grammy for it she said she wrote it “to honor the 6-year-old Viola”.
She is direct about money, race and looks. Talking to CBS about the book in 2022, she said “Beauty is attached to a value. And if you don’t have it, you have nothing,” and the memoir traces how that belief shaped the parts she was offered and the ones she fought for. The same instinct runs through her picture book, which puts a young Black girl at the centre of a classic series her daughter loved.
Judge Stone moves the same concerns into fiction: a Black woman judge in a small Southern town, a case about a 13-year-old girl, and a decision with a personal cost. For writers who share her subjects, from hard childhoods to Black women’s lives in public, see Authors like Viola Davis.
Watch
Viola Davis in Conversation with Oprah Winfrey
For Oprah’s Book Club in May 2022, Oprah Winfrey talks with Viola Davis about her memoir Finding Me, legacy and owning her story. From the official Oprah Daily channel.
Frequently asked questions about Viola Davis’s books
How many books has Viola Davis written?
Three: the picture book Corduroy Takes a Bow (2018), the memoir Finding Me (2022) and the novel Judge Stone (2026), written with James Patterson.
What are Viola Davis’s books in order?
Corduroy Takes a Bow (2018), Finding Me (2022) and Judge Stone (2026).
Where should I start with Viola Davis?
With Finding Me, her memoir. Consider the audiobook alongside the print: Davis reads it herself, and it won the Grammy for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording.
What is Viola Davis’s most famous book?
Finding Me (2022). It was an Oprah’s Book Club pick, and its audiobook won her a Grammy in 2023.
Did Viola Davis write Finding Me herself?
She is the sole credited author; no co-writer is named on the book. She has described working on it during the pandemic, when she said she felt “in the middle of a really weird existential crisis”.
Is Finding Me difficult to read?
Some sections are. She writes directly about childhood poverty and hunger, violence at home, bullying and sexual abuse.
Did Finding Me win any awards?
The audiobook, narrated by Davis, won the Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording in February 2023. The win made her one of the few people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.
What is Judge Stone about?
Circuit judge Mary Stone, in the small town of Union Springs, Alabama, hears the case of a doctor charged under the state’s strict abortion law after an operation on a 13-year-old girl. It is Davis’s first novel for adults, written with James Patterson and published in March 2026.
Did Viola Davis write a children’s book?
Yes. Corduroy Takes a Bow (2018), illustrated by Jody Wheeler, adds a new story to Don Freeman’s Corduroy series: the bear goes to the theatre with his friend Lisa. A middle-grade novel written with Lavaille Lavette, Girl, I Think My Grandma’s a Spy, has been announced for March 2027.
Where did Oprah interview Viola Davis about Finding Me?
In Oprah + Viola: A Netflix Special Event, which premiered on Netflix on 22 April 2022, four days before the book came out.
Footnotes
- Viola Davis’ memoir “Finding Me” selected as Oprah’s book club pick — CBS News, 2022
- Viola Davis achieves EGOT with Grammy win for her audiobook — ABC7, 2023
- Oprah and Viola Davis talk memoir in Netflix special event — Netflix Tudum, 2022
- Viola Davis adds novelist to résumé with ‘Judge Stone’ — theGrio, 2026
- Viola Davis and James Patterson to collaborate on novel — ABC News, 2024
- Viola Davis releases new children’s book, ‘Corduroy Takes a Bow’ — Because of Them We Can
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“I wrote this book to honor the 6-year-old Viola.”
— Viola Davis, accepting the Grammy for the audiobook of Finding Me (2023)
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